source: RIBBONFARM

It’s important to cultivate an effective crisis mindset

  • in order to do this, you must retain a strong connection to the sublime

solving problems as a group

people deal with crises in groups, not individually

  • mix of strengths, more bandwidth
  • who you are fighting alongside is also who you’re fighting for
  • example: Robinson Crusoe had the survival skills, but almost gave up before he met Friday

Finding the right group is important

  • the wrong configuration of people will demotivate you
  • the right group will illustrate to you what’s at stake

Because crises bind people so well, they can be rich with significance and meaning

  • the most extreme version of this can make regular life seem dull by comparison
  • some people arrange their lives so that they’re constantly facing a crisis

Moments of connection during a crisis are more intense

  • the bigger the crisis, the rarer the surpluses. The rarer the surpluses, the more they matter

times of crisis vs flourishing

If you grow up during crisis, you’ll have a mindset that’s rooted in scarcity and short time horizons

by contrast, when you have a flourishing mindset, you’re focused on personal fulfillment and accomplishment

  • If you spend your whole life in this mindset, you can only handle small crises. You’ll be overwhelmed by a medium sized crisis

Your ability to deal with crises changes when you age

  • you have more experience, resources and emotional regulation
  • you have less physical energy, health, imagination

Ngozi’s thoughts on this

Clearly, it’s important to experience both times of crisis and times of flourishing in order to grow into a well rounded person. I don’t think it’s realistic to contrive a crisis, but perhaps we can find a way to cultivate our crisis mindsets anyway. How can we do this?

  • Make a point of attempting to solve problems that are slightly out of our comfort zone
  • If someone in our community needs help, we can view it as an opportunity. By helping a friend or neighbor through a crisis, we increase our ability to handle a crisis

When we do need to face a crisis in our life, how can we tackle it in a way that helps us grow?

  • Reach out to friends and family. Not only can they help you face the crisis, but the experience may deepen your bonds and enrich your relationships
  • Reflect after it’s over. You probably grew in a way that you didn’t notice, or you may have accomplished something you didn’t know was possible. You can face the next crisis with more confidence.

How do we take full advantage of a flourishing mindset?

  • Don’t arrange your life so that you never encounter hardship, but stay organized enough to avoid unnecessary chaos. For example, if you have to tear your apartment apart before leaving on a trip because you forgot where you put your passport, you’ve lost time that you could be spending researching your destination
  • Don’t take flourishing time for granted. Learn to play guitar instead of binging Netflix